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Ace your customer experience: here’s how

Good customer service is a huge driver of business success, and it’s well worth spending time and money to improve yours.

How important is good customer service? Well, put simply, if you haven’t got customers you haven’t got a business. This should be obvious. But it’s not. Many businesses think their customer service experience doesn’t matter. It does.

According to a one survey, 59% of customers stop buying after a bad customer service experience, while 52% purchase more after a good one. Customer service is also the number one factor that impacts vendor trust.

Customer service also has a huge impact on your brand image, as that same survey found that 95% of people will share a bad experience with others, and 87% will share a good experience. And 88% have been influenced by an online customer service review when making a buying decision.

In the spa, salon, and wellness industry, customer service is particularly important.

This means you can’t treat customer service as an afterthought. It must be a priority. Also, even if you think your customer service is excellent. You might be mistaken. According to one stat, 80% of companies say they deliver “superior” customer service, but only 8% of people

said these same companies deliver “superior” customer service.

Uh oh…

Fret not, however. Not to brag but one of the things Book4Time’s spa, salon, and activity management software customers always rave about is our customer service. We know how to do it well. When they come to us, they’ve often been through many other spa software experiences and are tired of long response times and lacklustre solutions. And we make it all better.

So, I think we’re in a pretty good position to share these five tips on how to provide excellent customer service. These tactics can be used to improve customer experience in any industry or business, be it B2B or B2C.

Ask for feedback. Sending a customer survey soliciting feedback after a purchase or experience is the best way to find out what customers think. The vast majority of people – some estimates say more than 90% – will not complain after a bad customer service experience; they just won’t come back. The only way to know what their experience was like is to ask. Send a follow up survey to your spa customers after their visit, immediately, while it is fresh in their mind.

Listen. Pay attention to what people are telling you. Don’t dismiss or rationalize feedback or commentary – “That person is just pernsnickety. Our customer service above reproach!” Sure, the customer might be overly picky, or just a jerk. But do your homework, and pay attention. There may be something you need to fix. In fact, there is probably something you need to fix.

Be available. The most common complaint we hear about our software competition’s customer service is that they are slow to respond to issues. Apparently, it can take hours, or even days. This is obviously unacceptable for the providers of a software that you need to run your business. But it’s unacceptable for other product and service providers as well. People expect immediate responses these days. They don’t want to wait, and they shouldn’t have to. Even if a spa guest’s complaint isn’t time sensitive, a prompt response demonstrates that you are paying attention, and that the individual matters to you.

Make sure everyone is on the same page. Spa and salon management needs to train everyone on the team in customer service, and make sure they all know what great service is at your spa or salon – as it can mean different things to different people. Those who fall short should be given more training. Staff should also be taught to handle conflict, and given guidelines for what to do when it arises. Team members should be given autonomy to make their own decisions on how to handle difficult situations and customers (within guidelines), as well as autonomy to go above and beyond and do something special to enhance a customer’s experience (also within guidelines), such as offer a gift or an add-on to a treatment.

Do the most you can do instead of the least you can do. It comes down to this. It shouldn’t be enough to solve the problem, you should make it better than OK. If someone is unhappy with their massage, body treatment, or spa service provider, offering to reimburse the cost of the treatment – or to provide another treatment free of charge – is the least you can do. Adding another treatment or gift to this is better. Special offers, little thank yous — these go a long way.

Do you want your guests to be satisfied, or do you want them to be thrilled?

Book4Time is the world’s most innovative spa and salon software solution. If you would like to learn how to use Book4Time to improve your customer service, get in touch with a member of our super awesome customer service team and they will be only too thrilled to help. It’s what they do. Book4Time.com/contact

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